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Kenya: Government Ineptitude to Blame for Plight of IDPs
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The Nation (Nairobi)
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
Ndung'u Njaga
Nairobi
LOOKING AT OUR POLITICS since former President Moi left the scene, its tempting to believe he was not the only problem as most of us thought.
Who, one wonders, may have cursed our dear country with the siasa mbaya (bad politics) that has landed us into this vicious cycle of crises and desperation?
The presence of so many internally displaced people is a national shame and a great attack on our collective conscience. But the way our entire leadership has handled this issue has brought to the fore the worst form of mediocrity. The Kibaki government must be blamed harshly for crass indecisiveness and outright incompetence.
While political differences and conflicts are natural in the evolution of a democracy, it is shocking that some leaders seem to derive pleasure from the suffering and persecution of so many poor Kenyans, just because they didn't vote for them or do not come from their tribe.
When a section of international observers said the events in the Rift Valley had nothing to do with elections but were premeditated ethnic cleansing targeted at one tribe, there was a chorus of defensive outrage, with North Rift leaders ascribing the violence to spontaneous anger at flawed presidential elections.
Most Kenyans didn't believe this but we all kept quiet because failure to do so would have meant the victimisation and stigmatisation of the Kalenjin community, which would bode ill for national reconciliation and healing that the country so desperately craved.
So we gave Rift Valley politicians the benefit of the doubt, which turned out to have been a mistake, judging from their reactions to the proposed resettlement.
If the displacement was not deliberate, why would there be any preconditions for resettlement? Yet these are not people who are begging for land; they legally own their land and painstakingly laboured for their property, most of which was criminally destroyed.
A most telling, if very shameful hint, came from Minister Kipkalia Kones on the second day of the peace meetings in Kipkelion. He accused the displaced of having not voted with the "rest" of the people in the area, and required them in future to play ball with locals when it comes to politics.
Kenyans fought hard for multipartyism to restore respect for freedom of choice and assembly, and a minister has no business ridiculing a section of population for exercising this same freedom.
Even at the onset of the violence, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who may have been the most aggrieved by the election flaws, defended those who voted against him, as this is part of democracy.
The utterances by Mr Kones become even more ridiculous when you consider that voting in Kenya is by secret ballot. So what proof has he that the victims of violence are the ones who voted against his party, assuming, it was a crime to do so?
AND THIS, COMING FROM A CABINET minister who has taken an oath to defend the Constitution, is a sign of the depth to which intelligence in national leadership has sunk. It is a pity that our destiny is in the hands of such leadership.
This brings us to the Government. It's an abdication of duty to peg the resettlement of IDPs on the good will of local leaders who have already demonstrated lack of good faith. Security to life and liberty are guaranteed by the Constitution. The Government must uphold this freedom lest it becomes an accomplice in the plight of the IDPs.
People have a right to dislike each other as long as they are not breaking any law. While social integration is desirable for national cohesion and progress, it is not a fundamental prerequisite in law, and individuals or communities can choose not to be friends if they so desire so long as they obey the law.
So we cannot abrogate fundamental rights for some people under the hypocritical guise of reconciliation and historical injustices for which no concrete definition is being proffered.
Some leaders have talked of the need to suspend the resettlement until the root cause of the violence is addressed. It sounds noble, but its nothing beyond the homage vice pays to virtue.
The recurrence of this problem has nothing to do with historical or sociological mysteries that call for any study. The cause is the culture of impunity which has taken root, and which now threatens our very existence as a nation.
We have allowed people to loot our wealth at will, kill others for fun, and destroy public and private property at the slightest excuse while the Government looks on helplessly.
The Government must wake up now and justify its upkeep by upholding justice and rule of law throughout the country. President Kibaki must be reminded that history and the people of Kenya, especially IDPs, are all watching.
We have seen very worrying deterioration of security in a manner that is symptomatic of leadership failure, incompetence or just callous aloofness that can easily lead to national disintegration.
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It was obvious that the people who caused this violence in Rift Valley, and the recent Mungiki uprisings, took advantage of this leadership vacuum to break the law, and President Kibaki must take personal responsibility for this.
And with all resources given to it by taxpayers to protect life and property, the Government's apparent helplessness borders on criminal negligence of duty.
Mr Njaga is a tour consultant based in Nairobi.
The government according to my observation appears to take too much caution in reacting to issues of arresting and charging people involved in the after elections results crimes, meanwhile a lot of innocent people have died or will be traumatized for a life time. It’s a great pity. Some people are ether known or suspected to have funded, organized or incited the after elections chaos. Why won’t the government arrest such people to teach others a lesson never to repeat the same in the future. When I did a course in telecoms many years back, my lecturer advised that... [Read Full Text]
People like kones should be behind bars. They were involved in 1992 clashes. He has confessed why they had to do it this time. When we said these crimes were premiditated they were quick to denie that but even the worst muppets know the truth. I was thinking this violence was planned behind Railas back but with Orengo Utterances i now know it was an odm thing altogether. Lets wait and see the double standards applied in Kenyas case. If other warlords are being tried from other countries i hope to see if they will do the same in Kenya... [Read Full Text]
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